Prayers and tears for kidnapped girls

CATHOLIC BISHOPS in Nigeria are holding a holy hour of eucharistic adoration in cathedrals tomorrow and Masses are being said around the country for the release of schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram Islamists, write Fredrick Nzwili and Ellen Teague.

Fr John Bakeni, secretary of the Diocese of Maiduguri in Borno state, said he thought 80 per cent of the 230 girls kidnapped from the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Chibok in Borno state three weeks ago were Christian. He said the militants had used the girls as human shields and sex objects before dividing them up to cross the border into Niger, Cameroon and Chad. “I am in tears as I tell you this,” he said.

In a video that emerged on Monday, a Boko Haram leader threatened to “sell” the girls.

The UK and US are sending experts to help  locate the girls. Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, told The Tablet that asking whether the girls were Christian or Muslim was secondary to the need to find them. “Boko Haram wants to set Christians against Muslims but we believe in one Nigeria where diverse peoples can live together.”